


shorts

by deareli



Series: Chronicles of Aurelia [1]
Category: Chronicles of Aurelia, Original Work
Genre: Angst, Angst and Humor, Basically just me trying to build my universe, Building characters, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gay, Hurt/Comfort, LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Themes, Lots of Hurt and comfort, M/M, No Smut, Other, Road Trips, Shadow Realms, Short Stories, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:47:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27550999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deareli/pseuds/deareli
Summary: The Gang gets up to a lot when they aren’t out saving the world. Join them as they discover themselves and their place.(Short stories from my current universe, all original work. This is me world building.)
Relationships: Caspian Edwards & Sebastian Flores, Elyse Cansienne & Caspian Edwards, Elyse Cansienne/Sidney Marshall, Original Character(s)/Original Character(s), Original Female Character & Original Male Character, Original Female Character(s)/Original Non-Binary Character(s), Original Male Character/Original Male Character, Willow Daevaris & Sofia Flores
Series: Chronicles of Aurelia [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2013877
Kudos: 1





	shorts

**Author's Note:**

> hi i don’t write a lot anymore but i decided i need more original work out there so enjoy!
> 
> all the characters are diverse in some way, but if you want a description of them all please let me know. this is the first part of a two part short story! 
> 
> title taken from ‘Paint the Pictures’ by Of Verona.

“Warm milk? You know my manager is going to start getting suspicious with how much milk is disappearing,” Caspian raised his eyebrow, trying – and failing – to sound exasperated even as he began working on the order.

Elyse gave a wry smile, the only sort of smile anyone who isn’t Sidney could get from her. Although, sometimes Cas would be able to get something out of her. She looked pretty today, a plain black dress underneath one of Sidney’s thin plaid jackets tied into a crop off-the-shoulder top. Her hair – now short after their recent endeavour in the Veil – was tied up in a half up-do and her makeup was more light than she usually wore it – with simple winged eyeliner, light blush and pink lip-gloss.

“I am half the reason why they have added frothy milk to the menu, am I not?” she asked, pulling her card out of her phone case.

She had a point, though. Millie had changed up the menu a few weeks ago to add a cup of frothy milk as a side item for purchase, and it was because it was the only thing Elyse would order when coming in to the café. If Sidney was with her, she would be forced to get something to eat too but when she was alone – like now – it was just milk. He had no idea where the craving came from.

Regardless though, she was right. She gave him a small smug smile and moved off to the side to wait for her order. The café was empty enough, only a few people lingering around the tables and no one waiting at the counter. Cas wasn’t the only person working either – one of his co-workers was cleaning up the tables out the front. His sister, Millie, who owned the café, was out the back of the store making more food so he figured he had a little bit of time to relax.

“Did you and Sidney go out again today?” he asked, looking Elyse up and down. Now that she wasn’t in front of the counter, he could see she was wearing her heels that had straps going up her calves. While she usually liked to dress up nice and took pride in her appearance, she looked as nice as she did the first time Sidney dragged her out to a nice restaurant by the beach.

They weren’t ‘dating’ but anyone could see the two of them wanted to.

As predicted, the cat’s cheeks turned pink at the question, and she nodded. “They invited me for brunch at Waffle Kitchen,” she murmured, purple eyes looking at the counter rather at him. “They believe that I have not lived until I have had waffles at least once.”

“So they asked you out on another date. What’s that make, number 4?”

“The- it was not a date!” she hissed, managing to make it still sound as elegant as usual. “We went to brunch, as friends. We have a lot of breakfast hang outs, I like to spend money and Sidney likes to make me try new things.”

Cas smiled, smug as ever as he handed her cup over to her, red eyes twinkling. “Sounds like a date,” he teased. “Why don’t you just make it official?”

She took the cup with her eyes narrowing, but simply walked off to one of the window tables rather than answer him. It was answer enough, though.

He simply shrugged, and got back to work. Only a few hours left of his shift.

…

Throughout his shift, Elyse had left after enjoying her drink once Sidney showed up. He wondered if the two of them were heading out for dinner together.

His friend Sebastian had showed up shortly after Elyse and Sidney left, waiting around until Cas finished. And now that he had, he could see that the other boy seemed to be really excited about something.

Sebastian, like Elyse, seemed to be dressed in nicer clothes. His usual bomber jacket was replaced with a fur-lined leather jacket, a plain white tee underneath and plain black jeans cuffed at the bottom over top of his less-destroyed Docs. Even his hair seemed to be styled more formal, blonde strands slicked back into a nice style – off to the side rather than fully back. He’d had his sides shaved recently too, they looked well-groomed and thin.

“I have something to show you,” Sebastian said as soon as Cas reached him. “Well- I will once you get changed.”

“What’s wrong with my clothes?”

“Dude you smell like coffee, and not the good kind. It’s way too strong,” the taller boy said, making Cas pout. “Come on, we’ll get you a change of clothes and then head out to the mansion.”

Cas blinked, following Sebastian out to his – Cas’ – car. He chucked his messenger bag in the boot before hopping into the driver’s seat. Cas was the only one out of his friends to have a car (although Sidney had a motorbike and Willow owned a push-bike), so he often chaperoned them everywhere. He didn’t mind, though. He loved his car. It was a convertible which he kept the roof off of whenever he could, and it was red. Even though it was old and second-hand, it had gotten him everywhere and had gotten him and his friends across the country when they needed it.

“We’re going to the mansion?” the red-eyed boy asked, turning the engine on as Sebastian connected his phone up. The soft tunes of _Euphoria_ began to play and he began the drive back to his apartment.

Sebastian put his phone down on the centre console, relaxing back into the leather seat. “Yeah, we came across something cool. ‘Lyse said it just appeared and she has no idea where it’s come from,” he explained.

“Why didn’t she tell me when she saw me today?”

“Probably because she figured you might touch it,” Sebastian shrugged. “She told us not to play around with it ‘til she works out exactly what it does.”

Cas pouted again, but otherwise focused on driving. It was a nice day at least, the sun was shining down on them and the roads weren’t too busy. The city was usually bustling with life, so they were used to it, but it felt a bit calmer than it had in a while.

The ride fell quiet again, the two of them preferring to listen to the music rather than talk, and soon enough they reached Cas’ apartment. His roommate, Quinn, wouldn’t be home for another week so Cas had the place to himself. Which meant he often found himself having friends over whenever he could to stave off the feeling of loneliness.

“Coming in?” he asked, killing the engine and hopping out of the car. Sebastian instead opted to launch himself out of the car without opening the door, something his friends all liked to do.

“Only if you’ve got any more of those cinnamon rolls Quinn left,” Sebastian grinned, following the smaller boy into the apartment block. “Because the man can bake, and I know you haven’t eaten them all.”

“Sidney did,” Cas laughed, jogging up the stairs. His apartment was on the 7th floor of his building, and it had no elevator. It did mean that he had become more fit after living there for over two years. He could almost keep up with Quinn now.

He heard Sebastian grumble ‘of course they did’ and snorted, knowing that had Sidney known about them – they probably would have eaten every last roll. Fortunately, they didn’t know about them at all so there were lots for Sebastian to take. “Help yourself,” he said, gesturing to the bowl sitting out on the counter. “I’ll get changed since you want me to so bad.”

Cas ignored Sebastian’s response as he climbed up to his bedroom, shrugging off his jacket and sifting through his piles of clothes for some clean ones. His room, while not too messy, was still chaotic. Clothes were thrown about on the floor and his bed, his art supplies were strewn about across his desk and clutters of books and games were littering any space that might have been left.

He stripped off his shirt, ignoring the mirror as he sniffed at the shirt in his hands. He made a face at the smell, gathering that yes Sebastian was right (not that he’d tell him), and he was glad he had a chance to change. He put on one of his usual white button up shirts, shrugged on a light black jacket over top, and swapped his work pants for his ripped black jeans. He slipped on his loose pink tie and rolled up the sleeves of both his jacket and top, then looked at himself in the mirror.

It was one of his favourite outfits to wear, though he had no idea why. He ran a hand through his hair – curly blonde waves that sat messily atop his head. He had gotten used to the red strands of hair that sat on both sides of his face as framing bangs, though they were a shock when they first appeared.

He slipped on his boots and did up the laces, before heading back downstairs to meet up with Sebastian again, finding his friend eating what seemed to be his fourth cinnamon roll if the crumbs and wrappers were anything to go by.

“Finally,” Sebastian huffed, dusting his shirt off and hopping off the stool he had sat himself down on, blue eyes twinkling.

Cas rolled his eyes, picking up his keys and eyeing the dirty counter. “Unbelievable, you make such a mess sometimes.”

“But you won’t clean it up.”

“I will later,” Cas huffed, pushing Sebastian out the door and locking it. Cas was a neat freak when it came to everything but his room, especially when Quinn wasn’t home, but he was more excited about whatever his friends had found.

The two hopped into the car and drove off towards the old mansion at the edge of town.

…

“A mirror,” Cas said, deadpan, as he stared at the large object in front of them. He had one eyebrow raised, looking the mirror up and down.

It was a giant thing, standing taller than Cas and Sebastian. While Cas wasn’t too tall, actually standing at 5’6”, Sebastian was at 5’11” and was quite tall. The mirror looked old, the frame a ratty old woody thing that was flaking apart. It leant against the wall of the mansion, the blanket that had been covering it had been discarded to the side. The only thing worthy of being noted was that their reflection was slightly distorted, there was a sort of green aura radiating around both of them.

“Well, it’s a magic mirror,” Sebastian paused, frowning, “apparently.”

Cas stepped forward, reaching a hand to rest against the cool glass of the mirror. Nothing happened for a moment, then his hand tingled a bit and he hurriedly pulled it back. “How do you know it’s magic?”

“Elyse says it is,” Sebastian shrugged, as if that was answer enough. “Apparently she can feel it? Then Willow confirmed that she can also feel magic through it. And I trust Willow.”

“Not Elyse?”

Sebastian blanched, cheeks reddening. “Course I trust her too! It’s just, she’d totally mess with us if she got the chance. You know what she’s like.”

Cas thought back throughout the past year of knowing the cat, and shuddered. She would absolutely take any chance she would get to mess with them. Particularly the twins considering Sofia’s treatment towards her when they first met. “You’ve got a point.”

“She would probably make it up to prank us,” Sebastian said, huffing. He stood behind Cas, eyes narrowed in suspicion as he stared at the mirror. He seemed to be both curious and afraid of the mirror. “Y’know, that voodoo bullshit she likes to do.”

“What, _witchcraft_?”

“Dark magic,” Sebastian pouted, crossing his arms. Cas had turned back to him, an eyebrow raised, the mirror completely forgotten for a moment. “What?”

Cas stared at him. “Seb… did you forget we can do magic too? That we closed the Veil? That this,” he paused, tugging on the red coloured strands of hair that framed his face, “is because my seal broke? I mean, you can’t still be scared of it.”

“I’m not! It’s just, hers is _dark_ , Cassie. It almost killed you at one stage.”

“To be fair, I did almost kill all of you,” Caspian argued, looking nonchalant. He turned back to the mirror once again, placing his palm on it.

When he did so, a warmth spread through his fingers and sparked against the mirror, making him pull his hand back in alarm. “Cas?” Sebastian called, but the red-eyed boy ignored him, reaching his hand against the mirror’s surface again. This time, when he placed his hand against it, he felt a pull from the mirror, and stood there – transfixed.

Before he could let himself be pulled in, he felt himself being yanked back and he fell backwards, stumbling into strong arms.

“Hey, Cassie,” Sebastian’s voice called, and Caspian blinked to find icy blue eyes staring down at him in concern. “You with me? You kinda blanked out for a moment, just sorta went really rigid and leaning against the mirror.”

“F-Fine,” Cas managed, standing up with Sebastian’s help. “Thanks, Seb. I dunno what got into me there. It’s just…” he stopped, staring at the mirror for a moment more, eyebrows furrowing. “Something was there. Maybe Elyse was right, she should look at this before we touch it.”

Sebastian nodded, his hand still gripping Caspian’s arm. But Caspian didn’t mind. In fact, he didn’t mind any of his friends touching him – and they would, a lot. Elyse was the only exception, but she was beginning to warm up to all of them. She had gone from being clingy with just Sidney, to curling up on their laps whenever she could. So Sebastian touching his arm was normal to him now.

“I’ll uh, I’ll go get her. Wait here,” Sebastian said, blinking before patting Caspian’s arm and running off, phone in hand, before Cas could even stop him.

“Seb-!” He called, but realised it was no use. His friend was gone, so he turned back to the mirror, taking a step back as he looked at it.

It really looked no different than before, except the person staring at him didn’t feel… like him. It felt like he was looking at someone in his skin, and it unnerved him. He unconsciously brought his bony arms up to wrap them around his thin chest, almost in a shielding way. The reflection staring back at him followed suit, but moved slower than he did.

He stepped forward again, not touching the mirror this time, and bit his lip. He wasn’t entirely sure why, but something about it felt off. Like it was calling him, but he didn’t want to respond. Like something in his body was actively fighting something calling him to the mirror.

However, he turned at the sound of his name calling – and that’s when everything went black.

—

“Caspian?” A worried, crisp voice called. It sounded very similar, but he couldn’t exactly place who it was.

Nevertheless, he forced his eyes open, eyelids fluttering for a moment as he came back to himself. As his vision cleared, he could make out Elyse – who had spoken – Sidney and Sebastian hovering over him worriedly.

With Sebastian’s help he sat up, noticing the mirror smashed to pieces in front of him. Elyse moved so she was crouching in front of him, almost blocking his view. She reached out, turning his head as if examining if he was hurt, but what struck him was how… cold her hand was. She was often cold, sure, but never this cold. Her skin didn’t usually feel like ice.

When he flinched, from her hand, she withdrew it and gave him a stern look. “I told Sebastian not to tell you about this, I wanted to examine it first,” she said, almost reprimanding him. “At least you are not hurt.”

“I’m fine,” he said, apologising silently. “What happened?”

“We heard a crash just as Elyse and I got home and met Sebastian,” Sidney spoke up, face neutral – their usual grin gone. It seemed really weird, but thinking about it too much made Cas’ head hurt, so he didn’t. “When we got here, you were on the floor and the mirror was shattered.”

Cas blinked, thinking back on the incident. For some reason, when he tried, his mind would draw a blank. The last thing he remembered was Sebastian pulling off the cover. “I’m sorry,” he said, truly meaning it. “I don’t really remember much. All I wanted to do was look, it’s not often you find something new.”

“You have a point,” Elyse conceded, face relaxing into a smile. That was also odd, it’s not often she concedes her arguments. Or has such a calming smile on her face. “It is destroyed now, so whatever it was cannot harm us. I believe the dark magic is better off gone.”

What?

“What?” Caspian spoke, eyes wide. Now he knew that was off.

But as soon as the thought hit him, he winced. A sharp pain had struck through his head, and as soon as he shook it off, the thought was gone. “No, you’re right. Sorry.”

“Let’s get something to eat,” Sebastian piped up, grin wide. “I’m starving!”

—

The four of them met up with Sofia and Willow, who were both waiting in the foyer. Apparently Cas had been unconscious for the better part of the last hour, which worried him – but no one else.

Sofia had her short blonde hair tied up in a bun, and was wearing her favourite black flare pants and loose white off-the-shoulder crop top, while Willow was dressed in a basic green dress and her brown hair tied back into a traditional braid.

He should have found their behaviour odd, especially when Sofia fussed over him when they heard the story, but every time he would think about it, his head would hurt. So he quickly learned not to. Instead, he remained quiet as his friends chattered around him while Elyse cooked them dinner (something else that was odd, she didn’t know how to cook).

“…t do you think, Cas?” Willow’s voice broke through his thoughts, and he looked up from his glass of lemonade to find all of his friends watching him intently.

Something about the way they were looking at him freaked him out a bit, but he dismissed the thought. “S-Sorry, what was that?”

“Daydreaming again?” Sofia asked, concern laced in her voice. “Are you feeling okay, Cassie?”

Caspian nodded, brushing a stray few hairs out of his face. He felt awkward, like he was with a group of strangers rather than his friends. Even though the five people around him were almost like family to him at this point after all they had gone through together.

“We were discussing the possibility of heading down to Floverlly Bay for a week,” Elyse spoke up, returning to her task of cooking dinner. “As a vacation, of course. The mansion is almost finished so it may be beneficial to relax before returning to normal life.” Which, of course, meant life after the adventure had finished.

The six of them had returned only a few months ago, trying to return back to normalcy as much as they could. Of course, they still spent a lot of time together, more often than not all of them staying at the mansion. Elyse had set up rooms for all of them, and if it wasn’t for Quinn, Cas would probably be staying with his friends. But he didn’t want to leave Quinn to deal with the rent, plus he knew he would miss Quinn dearly.

“I’m down,” he shrugged, downing the last of his lemonade. He felt tired, suddenly. Drained. But he couldn’t really pinpoint what was wrong. “Can I nap? I think my head is still messed up from earlier.”

Elyse nodded, a strange look passing over her face for a moment. But it was gone in the blink of a second. She turned back to her cooking, and Sofia surprisingly was the one to help him to the couch in the living room.

He was so out of it when he laid down that he barely recalled someone placing a blanket over him, then blissful oblivion.

—

When Caspian woke up next, he was in an unknown room. He could think clearly. And he knew something was wrong.

Throwing the blanket off of him and standing up, he noted that his jacket and tie had been removed, and that he was in the bedroom Elyse had set up for him once she restored the mansion. The walls were a deep red, matching his eyes, with a king size bed, a walk in closet and an area for his art. She even gave him one of the rooms with a bigger window so that he got the most natural light.

But the thing that was different about this room was it had everything he kept in his apartment. Like he had _moved in._ Even though he hadn’t. Or, he was sure he hadn’t.

He slipped on the red hoodie that had been left slung over the desk chair (like he would leave it) and padded out of the room, noting how dark it had gotten. Maybe his friends would be asleep. He didn’t know. But he needed to check.

He quietly made his way down to the room where the mirror had been, remembering the way now that his head was clear. He kept an eye out for his friends, not wanting them to steer him away which he had a feeling they might do.

When he got to the room, he found the mirror covered back up. Odd. He walked closer, gently pulling off the sheet to find it blacked out, rather than broken into pieces like it was previously. With a frown, he put his hand against the surface gently, and once again felt the thrum of magic underneath his fingers – but this time, it was cold. When he removed his hand, he found the inky blackness had been cleared in that small area, and showed a bit of his reflection.

“Huh,” he shrugged, before reaching forward both hands to clear the rest of the mirror. And when he saw his reflection, he gasped.

His skin was pale, more pale than he’s ever seen it. Almost translucent, very similar to Elyse’s skin colour but more sickly looking. His hair wasn’t messily styled as usual, it just looked as depressing as his skin. The strands were drooped down as if they were being pulled down by gravity, and the blonde colour – as well as the red coloured strands – were dull and lifeless. His eyes looked sunken in, as if he hadn’t slept in years, and his normally prominent cheekbones were almost ghost-like. The bright red colour of his eyes was dulled, almost maroon in colour.

And his body – while Caspian knew he was skinny, bony in nature this was worse – he was almost skeletal looking.

He knew he had been on track with his eating (hell, Sebastian had been making sure he was eating three meals a day now) so for him to look this awful in one day really hit home that something was definitely wrong.

He stepped back from the mirror, staring at himself for a moment, before reaching forward and touching it again. He didn’t know what he was doing, but he did know that Willow had told him ages ago that if he needed someone, just trying to reach out to them mentally would help. He didn’t really believe her at the time, but now he would take what he could get. Especially now, in the situation that he was in.

He tried to picture all of his friends, essentially sending out a mental SOS. And then he waited.

“Caspian?” Elyse’s voice called, and he jumped when he realised it was coming from the mirror in front of him. He stared straight at it, watching as the reflection rippled and changed to his friends, in what the room normally looked like.

They looked much more lively than he did, which gave him hope.

“You’re here,” he breathed, quietly, making sure the ‘friends’ he was with couldn’t hear him. “Oh my god, am I glad to see you guys!”

This time it was Sebastian who spoke up. “Thank god. We’ve been trying to work out how this thing works for two days.”

Caspian balked. “Two days?” he whispered, realisation dawning on him. Wherever he was, two days had passed without him knowing.

“It has been two days,” Elyse said, her face blank but her voice full of concern. “This mirror has been spelled with a curse. You are trapped in a shadow realm made to look like ours. It is designed to trap people inside of it, and keep them there for eternity while their energy is slowly stolen from them, and they never know the difference because everything looks and feels like their world.”

Cas nodded. “When I first woke up here, it felt the exact same. Things only really started to feel wrong when I started feeling tired and you guys were slightly different.”

“Different how?”

“It was like your personalities had swapped around,” Cas explained, hugging his arms close to his chest. “I don’t like it. I look like I’m dead.”

Sofia smirked, from her position behind her brother Sebastian. “You do look like a skeleton,” she said teasingly, and Cas knew she meant no harm.

In fact, it got a small laugh out of him. It was so typically Sofia that it actually made him feel a bit better. He then sobered up, looking at them all. “What do I do?”

“We’ve worked out that you need to break free yourself,” Sidney said, their yellow eyes sad. “We can’t really do much from here.”

“But!” Willow piped up, her face brightening. “What we can do is try to help protect you as much as possible. Reach into your jean pocket.”

He did so, blinking in surprise as he pulled out a small stone. It was a Carnelian, he remembered from when Elyse was going through different stones used as different types of protection. “What is this for?”

“Carnelian,” Elyse answered, confirming what Cas was thinking. “They are used to protect against unwanted spells. While this is a curse, we believe that it should work the same way. If you keep it in your hand, your mind will remain clear and the curse cannot take your energy or your life.”

She was right. As she was speaking, he slowly felt his energy coming back to him and wondered if they could see it.

“You will keep the sickly appearance you have currently, but you should feel normal once again,” she continued. “It will also keep you in contact with one of us in your mind. Since Willow charmed it, you will be in contact with her. We cannot bring you back right now, but as soon as we find out how to bring you back Willow will tell you.”

Willow nodded, giving him a reassuring smile, and he nodded back. He heard voices coming from above and quickly covered the mirror once again, shoving the stone into his pocket as he did so. Instantly he felt his energy drain, but it didn’t matter. Once the mirror was covered he ducked into a corner of the room to hide.

Just in time too, as the shadow versions of Elyse and Sebastian wondered downstairs, probably in search of him, and when he gripped the stone in his pocket he could definitely see what the curse was stopping him from seeing in the first place. Their skin was pale and sickly, like his had been, and their eyes were dulled and almost grey in colour. They looked like walking corpses, and the thought made him mad that the curse had turned his friends into those creatures.

“He isn’t here,” Elyse spoke up, glancing around the room. Even the shadow version of her seemed to have her razor-sharp eyes, and he wondered if the cruse imitated everything about them. “Where on Earth could he be?”

“I swore I heard voices in here,” Sebastian added, reaching towards the mirror and ripping the cover off. Caspian held his breath. “This thing is still blank. Dammit. I was hoping he would try and contact them by now.”

Elyse smiled, her usual pearly whites almost animal-like in shape. And while the normal Elyse had sharper teeth due to her cat form, they were never this demonic. Even her smile screamed ‘evil’. Everything about her had become twisted and he didn’t like it. “He doesn’t know, then. Perfect. Soon, he will be dead and we can move onto someone else.”

Sebastian put the cover back on the mirror and smiled back at her, even his usual easy-going grin turned into something awful. “We just have to keep this up for a little bit longer. He was so easy, too. His energy was too easy to take.”

“Some humans are like that,” Elyse added, walking back up the stairs with him.

Caspian waited until they were completely gone, and released his breath. He kept the stone in his hand, his entire body slumping in relief and horror.

_“They’re awful,”_ Willow’s voice spoke suddenly in his head. _“Hopefully we’ll have you back with us soon. Just keep them in the dark about you.”_

Cas nodded, even though she couldn’t see him. _“Thanks, Wil.”_ He felt weird speaking in his head, but when he felt her giggle, he couldn’t help but smile.

At least he had his friends protecting him.

—

With his mind clear, Caspian was able to keep track of the time passed since he had been trapped in the shadow realm. Willow kept him up to date on what was happening back in the real world, and said Elyse was very close to figuring out a way to get him home. She had Sofia and Sidney helping her, so Sebastian was in charge of making sure Willow kept herself looked after while she was helping him.

A day had passed since he contacted his friends, and the shadows were none the wiser. He managed to keep up appearances, and had to stop himself from reacting whenever his ‘shadow friends’ faked concern about his sudden ‘illness’. Their forms seemed to change more daily, turning more demonic and dark with each passing minute, and he knew that if he wasn’t aware of everything then he probably never would have noticed.

He kept his reactions to himself, making sure to appear like he was dying and had no idea what was going on, but inside he wanted to scream. The hardest part was acting like nothing was wrong, and he felt himself start to waiver sometimes.

_“Breathe, Caspian,”_ Willow would say in his head. _“We’ll have you back soon.”_

Now, though, he was antsy. He was in his ‘bedroom’, running his hands through his hair as he stressed, knowing that sooner or later the shadows will get suspicious that he hasn’t died yet.

_“We have it!”_ Willow’s voice suddenly cheered in his head, making him wince. _“Elyse is going to funnel the information to me. But we have a way to bring you back home to us. Are you by yourself? This may take a while.”_

_“Yeah,”_ Caspian said back, straightening up. He couldn’t bring himself to be as excited as her, all the energy drained from him just by trying to keep up appearances. _“What is it?”_

_“She says you will have to break the spell.”_

_“What?”_

_“Yes, she said you will have to break the spell. There is only one way to do that and it’s by killing the shadows. This will be easier said than done, however. You might get away with killing one, but once one dies the others will know. They have our abilities too, which you will need to be wary of. Once you’ve killed them, the world will begin to destroy itself. You will need to head to the mirror and run through the seal back to us.”_

Cas blinked, taking in the explanation. He hadn’t expected that. _“But they still have your faces! I might not be able to do that.”_

_“It’s the only way,”_ Willow said, but her tone was understanding. If there was anyone who would know what he’s feeling, it’s her. _“They might look like us but they are not us. We’re here, right with you in mind and spirit. I promise. You can do this, Caspian.”_

Caspian sighed, gripping the stone in his left hand, and holding out his right hand in front of him. With Willow’s help inside his head, he managed to summon one of his flames, and instantly felt relief that he at least had his magic.

_“Okay_ ,” he said, determined. “ _I can do this.”_

**Author's Note:**

> tumblrs;
> 
> misguidedstars & elias-writes
> 
> please come say hi! also leave me a comment telling me what you think :) i know original work isn’t really read all that much on here but i’d love to know what those that do read it really think!


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